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Summary of the Sermon by Pastor Irwan Fransiskus, at Bethany International Service, on Sunday, 6 Aug 2017.

Prayer of Jabez

The prayer of Jabez teaches us how to depend on God and to call upon Him.

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 – Jabez was more honourable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore him with pain.” Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested.

Jabez’s mother gave birth to him in pain. She named her son “Jabez”, which means “pain.” Perhaps she led a painful life, so she decided to name her son “pain” literally. Jabez’s prayer is made up of four parts. First, Jabez asks God to bless him. Second, he asks God to enlarge his territory or increase his responsibility. Third, he prays that God will be with him and stay close. Lastly, Jabez asks that God keep him from harm so that he will be free from pain.

The Bible mentions that he was an honourable man because of his prayer.

1. Jabez asked God to bless him.Jabez understood that the blessings of Abraham in Genesis 12:2 – ask the Lord to bless us to glorify Him. Jabez understood the purpose of God’s blessings. Jacob wrestled with an angel at the Jabbok river until he was blessed (Genesis 32:26).

Power, fame, wealth, beauty and health cannot satisfy us. We can learn from the life of famous people like Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Thierry Costa and Getulio Vargas. They did not find the meaning of life in their status, and these successful people ended up committing suicide.

2. Jabez prayed for God to enlarge his border so that God’s hands may be with Him.Jabez understood the prayer of Moses in Exodus 33:15 “If Your presence do not go with us, do not bring us from here”.

If the Lord is with us, His favour is also with us. It is very important to stay close to God and rely on His continued support and guidance throughout our life.

3. Jabez asked God to keep Him from harm. Jabez clearly knew and prayed specifically to the One who could protect him from evil and pain, 1 Chronicles 4:10 – Keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain. The Hebrew word for harm in this verse correlates with 1 Corinthians 10:1-11 – these are the examples of harm or “evil”.

How do we keep ourselves away from harm/evil? There are four examples of the word “harm/evil” in the Bible:

1. Idolatry – anything we love more than God is our idol. It could be our hobby, our occupation or even the love of chasing money (Ecclesiastes 5:9-10, Ephesians 5:5).

2. Sexual immorality is a sin we must avoid. We live in a world where society is experiencing moral degradation, where same sex marriage is legal in some countries. Genesis 49:2 records that Ruben slept with his stepmother (one of Jacob’s wives) and as a result Ruben was denied of his first-born birth right.

Lot and his daughters committed incest, and their two descendants from this relationship resulted in constant battles between the Israelites and the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis 19:32).

3. Putting God to the test is to demand God to prove Himself to us in our own way. Pastor Mark Wolford, from the US State of Virginia, was bitten by a rattle snake and was killed during a church service for putting God to test. He was well-known for handling dangerous snakes in a test of faith. We need to practise godly discernment by not doing dangerous acts to demonstrate God’s protection upon us. When we view God through our doubt and demand something of Him as a way of determining whether or not He can be trusted, we are in danger of testing God.

In the Bible, there are examples of both acceptable and unacceptable kinds of testing God. It is acceptable to “test” God concerning tithes and offerings (we give because we have faith in Him), for example, but unacceptable when the test is to demand something from God to prove Himself to us because we lack faith in Him.

4. Grumbling is a harmful attitude and it is evil in the sight of God. Proverbs 20:19 It is that faith-inspired action of obedience that God loves. As seen in the example of Israel’s journey out of Egypt, they developed a habit of grumbling.

How do we value the love of Christ in our life? God has given us everything, even His precious blood on the Cross (John 3:16). There is no greater love than the love of Christ. Jacqueline Kennedy’s love letter to the British Ambassador to the US, was sold in an auction for a price for USD$190,000. The Bible is God’s love letter to us, and is priceless. Our food is to do the will of God and to accomplish His work, John 4:34. Let us work out our salvation and work for food that endures to eternal life (John 6:27).

At the end of the prayer of Jabez, it is clear that God approved of this faithful prayer by granting it. It is also important to see that Jabez was passionate in his plea to God: "He cried out to the God of Israel." God wants to hear that we need Him through passionate prayer.

The Summary of Sermon by Ps. Djohan Handojo at Bethany International Sevice on Sunday, 2 July 2017.

CHALLENGES FOR EVANGELISM

Pastor Djohan recently attended a conference at Wittenburg in Germany where the Reformation started by Martin Luther.

The conference discussed how to bring the Gospel for every person and challenges in sharing it. The gospel brings freedom and transforms life.

In sharing the gospel today, we faced several challenges :-

1. Ideology

People do not believe in God. 40% of the people in the Western world become atheist. They do not find God important in their lives.
2. Secularism

People look into the world and there is less emphasis of God in the society. In South East Asia, many people still have strong faith in God. We still find Christian schools, many Church services in the malls and hotels.

3. Moral

Today sexual disorder is considered normal and acceptable especially in the western world. The government in America and other western countries legalized the same-sex marriage. Even the schools are teaching it and educate the right to develop love and feelings beyond the gender which is gender disorientation.

(
James 1: 2-3) The world is constantly under temptation by the devil. Only the kingdom of God is unshakeable.

We are dealing with self centeredness. People have the tendency to become self centered. Some of us struggle with sin but Jesus is waiting for us to come back when we have gone astray in the world.
(2 Corinthians 5: 17-18) We are the new creation in Christ. It is important for us to walk in Christ every day. God will see us in a different way, God will see Christ who has redeemed us and see us as a new man or new woman in Christ.

When we are still living in the old self, the devil can attack us. When we live as a new man in Christ, the
devil cannot attack us. However, we can live a victorious life because God is in us.

(1 Corinthians 6 : 2 – 3) For us as believers, one day, we will reign and rule with Jesus. We will judge the world and the fallen angels.

Now, the Holy Spirit is in the world but one day the Holy Spirit will be taken away from the world. The world will turn into chaos.
(John 6:54- 55) Whoever eat of my flesh and drink of my blood remains in me, have the salvation and eternal life.

One day I made an appointment with a friend who had been promoted to be a head of an important government agency. I called him several times but got no response. I became impatient and then I send short messages through mobile phone, but I also did not get any answer.

I became increasingly impatient because he acted unlike the usual and during that impatience an improper prejudice and accusation arose. My soul became restless and full of puzzles that need to be answered by a variety of uncertain possibilities. A restless soul like this soon brings anxiety and uninvited fear. As it is acknowledged by many doctors and health experts that the excessive fear and anxiety are the cause of many diseases which are complicated, difficult, complex to be cured.

The Word of God in Luke 21:19 says, that we have to be patient with what we do because God takes into account of what we have done and according to His time, He will make everything beautiful in its time. The patience because they understand God is always with and accompanies us, these will bring us peace and joy that causes the blessings of grace, Go’s mercy come down never-ending.

TODAY’S WORD: 1 Corinthians 13:4, NKJV

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.

TODAY’S VERSE TO REMEMBER:

“Stand firm, and you will win life.” (Luke 21:19)

TODAY’S ACTION:

Learning to be patient is the same as learning to love others.

TODAY’S QUOTE:

Patience is the humility that will prepare us to see and experience God’s greater glory.

Today, when you’re waiting for God’s miracle on your life problems, there are some definite things that is happening to you: you’re in a dead-end, you are not able to do anything else because all experiences, connections, powers can no longer be relied on, you can only hope to God’s help and you’re in the waiting days without knowing when a miracle will happen. The waiting days are very important because you will never know when God’s help came. But know about this truth and meditate it that: God is never late and He also will not be too soon. Then what you need to do in days like these? The Bible answers it with another truth in Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Rejoice in the Lord always for the joy of the Lord is the strength of life. (Nehemiah 8:11)

Have patient in difficulties and pressure. (James 1:12)

Persevere in prayer. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

So by doing those three things above, you will have the mind of Christ, that God would help, sacred hearts of Christ full of gratefulness, peace, joy, and hearing only to holy things which hears only to the words of God that build our faith. And if you make it through these days, you have received a miracle as you want in the spirit world, you just need to release it in the real world.

TODAY’S WORD: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11, NKJV

Everything Has Its Time

3 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; 3 A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; 7 A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; 8 A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.

The God-Given Task

9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

Therefore, since we have been justifiedthrough faith,we have peacewith God through our Lord Jesus Christ,2 through whom we have gained accessby faith into this grace in which we now stand.And weboast in the hopeof the glory of God.3 Not only so, but wealso glory in our sufferings,because we know that suffering produces perseverance;4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.5 And hopedoes not put us to shame, because God’s lovehas been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,who has been given to us.

Today’s Inspiration

God wants us to be diligent. The word diligent means to persevere in every situation. The opposite word of diligent is despair. Diligence is an important characteristic of a mature Christian. Without diligence it will be hard for us to reach a cause. Diligence also means endurance in action. This does not mean that we can relax in our chairs and just wait for God to do something. We can already imagine the diligence through the image of soldiers who prepares for war [Hebrews 12:1]; ants that diligently carry their food to the hiding holes [Proverbs 6:6-11]; and snails that diligently walk across high walls.

Diligence is different with patience. Diligence connects with temporary situation whilst patience connects with the relationship with people. Someone can be diligent in dealing with hard situation, but still loss his patience in dealing with the people under him. Moses was diligent in dealing with the Pharaoh of Egypt whilst loss his patience in dealing with the people under him [Numbers 20:1-12]. God could make water came out from the rock, but could not force Moses to be patient. Patience connects with your self-control [Proverbs 25:28].

Even then, diligence and patience must walk side by side if we want to grow well in our spirit. Lord Jesus had automatically changed the heart of Peter [Luke 22:50-51]. The same also happened when Lord Jesus made miraculous healing for all who sick. But then the greatest miracle of God is not the divine healing from the disease, but in your diligence and patience in dealing with the disease.

And thus, God wants us to be diligent in facing anything. Do all things diligently and you will succeed before the Lord.

Today’s Reflection

In what things that you are not diligent enough? In what things does patience do you hard?

What are the things that often hinder you in becoming diligent and patient?

Today’s Action

Be diligent in every situation you have and be patient in dealing with the people around you.